A Gun Of The Artillery Followed, And The Spectacle Made Me Laugh
Immoderately, Though I Had No One With Whom To Share My Amusement.
It was
a new-looking gun of shining brass, perfectly innocent of the taste of
gunpowder, and mounted on a carriage suspiciously like a timber-truck,
which had once been painted.
Six very respectable-looking artillerymen
were clustering upon this vehicle, but they had to hold hard, for it
jolted unmercifully. It was drawn by four horses of different colours and
sizes, and they appeared animated by the principle of mutual repulsion.
One of these was ridden by a soldier, seated on a saddle placed so far
upon the horse's neck, that it gave him the appearance of clinging to the
mane. The harness was shabby and travel-soiled, and the traces were of
rope, which seemed to require continual "fixing," to judge from the
frequency with which the rider jumped off to adjust them. The artillerymen
were also continually stopping the vehicle, to rearrange the limber of the
gun.
While I was instituting an invidious comparison between this gun and our
well-appointed, well-horsed, well-manned artillery at Woolwich, the
thought suddenly flashed across my mind that the militia forces of America
beat us at Lexington, Saratoga, and Ticonderoga. "A change came o'er the
spirit of my dream," - from the ridiculous to the sublime was but a step;
and the grotesque gun-carriage was instantly invested with sublimity.
Various attractions were presented at the fair.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 170 of 478
Words from 46340 to 46590
of 129941
